VANCOUVER - Roger Sloan has tried the “it’s-just-another-tournament” mantra, but the Merritt golfer is no longer attempting to kid himself.

Q-school is different, maybe never more so than this year when golfers get their final chance to actually play their way on to the PGA Tour.

“I had played so well last year and had a fairly decent scoring average and I just kind of treated it like another tournament which was great until in the third round I made a triple-bogey and all of a sudden my whole world came crashing down,” Sloan said of his Q-school experience last year when he failed to advance out of the first stage.

“I wasn’t ready to handle the pressure that comes alone with Q-school because no matter how you look at it, Q-school is different than any other tournament. There’s more pressure, there’s more on the line, your career is on the line.”

And, of course, it’s more than a little difficult to keep that swing on plane or square your putter-head with thoughts like that racing through your head.

“It probably took me three or four months to get over that,” said Sloan, who made all eight cuts on the Canadian Tour this year and finished 10th on the money list. “I had kind of taken it for granted. I had such a good year, I guess in the back of my mind I felt like if I continued to play the way I had, I’d just kind of breeze through Q-school and be off to the races.

“There was a little bit of naievete, I guess you could say. I am more prepared this year. I know that I have taken the steps that have to be taken in order to get to the next level. So I am excited this year.”

So are several other British Columbians who are off to one of 14 first-stage Q-school sites. Sloan is playing at Lantana Golf Club near Dallas, where the first round of the 72-hole event goes Tuesday. He’ll be joined there by Langley’s Adam Cornelson.

Also starting their Q-school journeys on Tuesday are North Vancouver’s Eugene Wong, who is playing at Dayton Valley Golf Course near Reno, Nev., and Langley’s James Allenby and Matt Daniel of Richmond, who will both tee it up at the Classic Club in Palm Desert, Calif.

The list of B.C. players scheduled to tee it up in the Q-school pressure-cooker the following week include Abbotsford’s Nick Taylor and Darren Wallace of Langley, who are both playing at San Juan Oaks north of San Jose, and Ryan Williams of Surrey, Cory Renfrew of Victoria and Nathan Leonhardt of Richmond, who are all playing at Oak Valley in Beaumont, Calif.

This will be the end of Q-school as we have known it, which is something of a shame. Each year, it seems, there are tremendous stories about players coming out of nowhere to earn a PGA Tour card. Starting next year, that won’t be possible. The best players will be able to do is earn a spot on the Web.com Tour.

The PGA Tour is basically introducing an apprenticeship system where players have to earn their way to the big tour through the secondary Web.com (formerly Nationwide) circuit.

But Williams, a former junior hockey player who had a solid year on the Canadian and Vancouver Golf Tours, says that really doesn’t change much. Williams, like most of the other B.C. players heading to Q-school, would be delighted to earn status on next year’s Web.com Tour.

“The way I look at it, my ultimate goal is to play on the PGA Tour, but I wouldn’t have any problems moving up to play another tour like the Web.com Tour,” Williams said. “For me, I just to need to play in more tournaments with bigger purses throughout the year. The Canadian Tour has been great, but three years playing on the Canadian Tour is like one on the Web.com Tour.”

Q-school is once again three stages, with the final set for Nov. 28 to Dec. 3 in La Quinta, Calif.

Renfrew almost got to skip the first stage of Q school. The top two finishers on the Canadian Tour money list earned a pass to second stage, but Renfrew was overtaken the final week and finished third.

The UBC graduate had a another close call last month at the first stage of European Tour Q-school, where he missed advancing to the second stage by just one shot at a site in Italy.

“I think that disappointment will help me,” Renfrew said. “I think it will make me hungry to battle and stay focused for the whole 72 holes down at Oak Valley.

CHIP SHOT: Langley’s Sue Kim tied for 20th at the second stage of LPGA Tour Q school on Friday and successfully advanced to the Q-school finals late next month. Kim shot a final-round 73 to finish the 72-hole event at one-over par. Fellow Langley resident Jessica Wallace tied for 77th place at eight-over par and missed advancing by one shot.

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